I don’t want to go off on a rant, but I’m just about had enough. When I first set up WordPress, it had this annoying behaviour of showing a thumbnail of the web page associated with links on my blog. If I cursored over a link, pop, there it was: an annoying, little preview in a micro-window. Eventually, I stumbled upon the config option to disable that feature as it is one of my pet peeves.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to usability enhancements that make a site more navigable. No, I like usability. Let’s not even remember that when I was in college, I strived for what I called the “user-hostile” interface. But that was over twenty years ago. I’m older and, supposedly, wiser now.

I hate it when I move my pointer across a web page only to be barraged with a whack of Ajax-enabled, pop-up windows telling me what “Internet” or “Pizza” means. I was just on a site, though I can’t remember what it was, that gave a pop-up bio of the author when I accidentally moved my mouse over the name of the author. That wasn’t bad enough, but the pop-up stole the context and to continue navigating the site, I had to close that pop-up.

I doubt that ANYONE on Earth cares who I am, so don’t force me to to read about the author. If I am so inclined, I will click on the link to the author’s bio. Surprisingly, I know how to do that. So does almost everyone that uses a browser. If they don’t, then they should learn. It’s not rocket science.

Browsing should be a pleasant experience. It should be about finding the information that you want to find. It should not be about forcing an experience upon the visitor. I hate having to carefully navigate a page to avoid the links that I don’t want.

And while we are on the subject…. unless you are Wikipedia or something similar, you don’t need to have a window pop up whenever you have a definition for a particular word. Heck, even Wikipedia doesn’t do that. A small, little definition that shows up in a small box that goes away when you move the cursor away is more than adequate. And keep it concise! I shouldn’t have a box that fills up 1/2 the screen.

Ok, I feel much better now.